The present invention relates generally to the field of user authentication systems, and more particularly to authentication system performance.
Computer access control is a process for controlling access to computing resources. Computer access control includes authentication, by which an attempt is made to verify the proclaimed identify of a given user. If the user's identity is deemed authentic, the user is granted access to the requested resources. “Authentication” as used herein should be understood to encompass both verification-only scenarios and scenarios that include both verification and the subsequent access approval or denial.
Taylor and Karlin, in An Introduction to Stochastic Modeling (3rd ed., 1998), pp. 2-5, state: “A stochastic model predicts a set of possible outcomes weighted by their likelihoods, or probabilities . . . . A stochastic process is a family of random variables Xt, where t is a parameter running over a suitable index set T . . . . In a common situation, the index t corresponds to discrete units of time, and the index set is T={0, 1, 2, . . . } . . . but different situations also frequently arise . . . . Stochastic processes are distinguished by their state space, or the range of possible values for the random variables X, by their index set T, and by the dependence relations among the random variables Xt.”